Female student population in Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) grew 14 per cent more over the number of male students admitted to pursue various programmes for the 2016/2017 academic year, the Rector said on Saturday.

“Our total student population for the 2016/2017 academic year stands at 4,000 with males constituting 43 per cent compared with 57 per cent being females,” Dr Wilberforce Sefakor Dzisah said as he addressed a large crowd gathered to witness the graduation of 690 students in diploma and degree programmes.

“This figure is an improvement on the 2015/2016 student population which stood at 3,232 students.

“Successive governments have been working over the years to bridge a yarning gap in gender enrolment disparity in higher education in the country to meet global goals.

“The country’s premier media educator successes come barely four months when the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection signed a deal April this year with Campaign for Female Education Ghana, to advance the course of girl’s education and women empowerment.

“For today’s congregation ceremony, we are graduating a total of 690 students, out of this number, 230 are from the diploma level.

“In the degree category, we have a total of 460 students,” he said.

Dr Dzisah announced that 20 of the students obtained first class honours, 242 had second class upper division, 170 got second class lower division while 29 of the graduates managed with third class.

“Clearly, this is a marked improvement over last year’s performance.”

“The overall comments on both the journalism and public relations programmes which were examined by our eternal examiners testify to my assertion,” he said.

Dr Dzisah quoted the external examiners assessment of the institute’s programmes and performance of students as: “Having gone through the documents related to the Bachelor of Arts in communication studies for journalism and public relations programmes our overall assessment is that the programmes are well-designed and the courses are satisfactorily managed.”

“The programmes and the courses compares fairly well with other similar courses elsewhere. The programmes fully equip the students with knowledge and skills necessary for the profession of journalism and public relations and other related areas.”

“On the overall, the standard of dissertations are very good.”

Special awards were given to outstanding students in both diploma and degree programmes as well as in top-up courses.

Source: GNA | Ghana